(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Asian Games champions Qatar overcame a fighting Austria 29-27 to book their maiden entry into the quarter-finals of a handball world championship.
On the first day of the knockout stage of the 24th Handball World championship yesterday, Slovenia, Croatia and Spain, also made it to the last eight stage.
The hosts, only the second Asian country, after Korea, to make to the quarter-finals of the world championship, will take on the winner of today's clash between Germany and Egypt on January 28.
Yesterday, the hosts rode on the brilliance of Markovic Zarko and Capote Rafael coupled with the brilliance of goalkeepers Saric Danijel and Goran Stojanovic, to script their best ever performance on the world stage.
Zarko and Capote, between them accounted for 15 goals out of the 29 the team scored.
Besides the two prolific scorers, the keepers supplemented the good work of Qatari field players by excelling between the posts.
Danijel made seven saves out of the 18 attempts at the goal, while Stojanovic was successful in blocking three tries out of the 19 that came his way.
Qatar coach Valero Rivera was ecstatic with the performance of his boys.
"I believe this is the first time in this tournament (world championship) we have qualified for the quarter-finals. Of course, I am very happy with the victory, he said.
"This is very important for the players, for the coaching team, for the federation who has worked a lot for this, and for the country,' he added.
At Lusail Multipurpose Hall, Austria had a tough task at hand to stop an in-form Qatar, who lost just one match in the group qualifying stage, the only loss coming against defending champions Spain.
The Austrians, who finished third in Group B, had another factor to deal with, Qatari fans backing their team to the hilt. The Austrians appeared jittery in their attacks and although they had sufficient opportunities to take the lead, missed out on the chances and lost too many balls in the first few minutes of the match, but still held on to the lead till the tenth minute, 5-4.
On the other hand, Qatar goal scorers had to deal with an Austrian 5-1 defence with line player Markus Wagesreiter pushing forward the home side did not have the best of the start.Qatar got their rhythm in attack and managed to pull one back to equalise in the 11th minute, from there on the lead kept fluctuating between the two teams, with Austria going into the first half break with an one lead at 14-13 lead with them into the half time break. In the second half, Qatar came out guns blazing as coach Rivera seemed to have the answers to all the first half problems as the hosts managed to take a two goal lead.
Austria tried to come back and managed to equalise at 16-all and also at 22-all, but from the 50th minute the hosts took over and maintained a two goal difference which took the hosts to a distance.
Markovic scored eight goals for Qatar, Rafael netted seven while Robert Weber scored eight for Austria.
In the other pre-quarter-finals, Slovenia defeated Macedonia 30-28, at Ali Bin Hamad Al Attiyah Arena in Al Sadd.
Also making it to the quarter-finals were defending champions Spain who defeated Tunisia 28-20 in the second match of the evening at Lusail.
Croatia also booked a place in the next stage with a 26-25 victory over spirited Brazil, after a tough fight.
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